Friday, June 20, 2008

The Russians Are Coming!

Rumors and reports have been rampant that it was a ridiculously rich Russian who coughed up the big Rubles for Donald Trump's Palm Beach flip property Maison La Amitié. Turns out all the scuttlebutt was true because according to the always reliable Christina S.N. Lewis at the Wall Street Journal, the previously un-named $100,000,000 buyer is Russian fertilizer titan DmitryRyblovlev, a man Forbes estimates is worth $12,800,000,000.

The 33,000 square foot ocean front behemoth that includes a garage for 48 damn cars was actually purchased by an investment company linked to the Mister Ryblovlev and he is quoted as saying that the purchase is not an indication that he will be moving to the United States. In fact, there is much discussion among the Palm Beach real estates and other sundry wasps all up and down the posh drives in the area that the Russian may tear down the existing residence and subdivide the property.

A bold real estate maneuver to be sure, but if Your Mama is being honest, and we always are, we say good riddance to this sprawling architectural vulgarity.

29 comments:

Wow, according to your report (via Forbes), Ryblovlev is only worth USD 12.8 million. So he's been doing som serious debt borrowing to finance the purchase of Trumps old Palm Beachpad if he paid USD 100 million for it.

Perhaps a numerical correction is in order to bring Ryblovlev's net worth to the billions. ; )

What a spectacular spot for a monstrosity of a house. Abe Gosman was the owner prior to Trump. Even he didn't live in the main residence...he preferred the guest house. The main house had the ambience of a Ramada with faux masterpieces painted on the curved walls of the dining pavilion (not really sure what the space was supposed to be). The loggia featured the most hideous sofa ever, covered in a shiny floral fabric. The sofa was originally intended for the reception area of Meditrust (Mr. Gosman's former company) but was so expensive, the accountants didn't want it on the financial records and it was dumped at the "maison." What a sight that place was...

Molto hideoso............ but it would be fun to scavenge the cast stone balustrade and copings for use in back yard projects. The parthenoid folly needs a giant green gazing ball to cap it off. It would be fun to paint all of this pink just to annoy the neighbors.

Trump's taste has nothing to do with this mess. He didn't build it and never lived in it. Purchased for $42 million and sold for $100 million netted him a $58 million profit. The art of the deal indeed.

I'm NOT an economist, but with the value of the dollar, maybe he picked it up for pennies due to the exchange rate and if the dollar ever rises, when he sells it, the exchange rate will net him a huge profit.

The Japanese did that in Hawaii. They bought everything in sight at triple the value, waited 3 years and then sold for an enormous profit leaving the Islands with massively inflated prices.

What a waste. Keep it and use for something fitting. I can't offhand think what that might be, but just tearing down things on a whim is shameful. BTW isn't it an indication of how low the US and its economy has sunk that a Russian, ex-Commie in all probability, is buying up some of our stuff? And we thought they would destroy our wonderful capitalistic system. Now they are gaming it.

Rich people from all over the world buy luxury properties all over the world. They always have and always will,there are even plenty of Americans buying fancy estates in the most expensive cities like London. So now it's the Russians and yesterday the Japanese but it's really all the rich from everywhere doing it all the time.

In the past there weren't any really rich Russians; the Communists didn't permit it. I think you would find (altho I have not seen statistics) that proportionately fewer Americans buy super expensive foreign properties than do, say Indians now, or Russians. Getty used to own a vast estate in the UK, but no longer. American billionaires tend to stay home.

On the list of the worlds top 100 wealthiest people there are 32 Americans,18 Russians and 10 Indians.The American billionaires that I do business with have homes all over the country and the world,they are not bothered by the declining dollar as most of them have accounts in Euros as well and investments in many economies and have had for many years.

This is just the start, Russia will soon be one of the richest nations in the world. Already now you'll see more Ferraris Bentleys and RRs in Moscow than in Beverly Hills. The russian potential for wealth is huge, american wealth will become peanuts in comparison soon. Yep, the times are changing, very very quickly.

Russia is an oligarchy. It will NOT be wealthy as a country. It will have a select few who are immensely wealthy. Big difference.

As for American peanuts, you sound like those in the 1980s who were freaked out by the large amounts of Japanese money flowing into our country. Doesn't seem like they took over the world, either. Money flows.

@ Alessandra. You cannot compare the 80's with the current situation. What is about to come, soon; China, India, Russia and also Brazil cannot be compared to the economical power the Japanese had then. The world scenario is changing for ever, and Americans, except for a few, will have to get used to it pretty soon. Already now the US economy is in the hands of the Chinese and as long as the US market is interesting, they will sustain it, but once their homemarket becomes more interesting, in a few years, things will change drastically.